Father-to-be Cortes feels 'different intensity' in spring debut for Crew?

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Nestor Cortes is preparing on two fronts. At the field, he’s preparing to pitch for the Brewers with free agency looming at the end of the season. At home, he’s preparing to be a dad.

Cortes’ wife, Alondra, is pregnant with the couple’s first child, and the plan is for Nestor to be two or three outings into his debut season with Milwaukee when he heads home to Miami to attend the birth. Since he cannot control Mother Nature, Cortes has been focused instead on his work, which moved into a new phase on Sunday afternoon when Cortes made his first Cactus League appearance in the Brewers’ 5-2 loss to the Royals at Scottsdale Stadium.

“It was definitely a good step toward the season. I feel like I needed this,” he said. “I needed to face competitive baseball. … It was a different intensity.”

That’s because all of Cortes’ work before Sunday had come in quiet surroundings at American Family Fields of Phoenix, where he threw a series of live batting practice sessions to ensure the health of the left elbow, which gave him trouble last year with the Yankees. He might have been ready to pitch last week, but his start day fell on a team off-day.

So it wasn’t until Sunday, when Cortes allowed one run on four hits and one walk to go with two strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings, that he pitched against hitters wearing a different uniform. He didn’t mind working in relief of fellow Brewers starter Aaron Civale.

“He’s my locker neighbor in the clubhouse and I think it’s a similar approach to pitching, though he’s from the left side,” Civale said. “A lot of stuff that he does is stuff that I like to do, so we can bounce some ideas off each other and continue to learn from each other.”

Civale continued his own ramp-up by logging three innings and allowing two earned runs on a pair of solo homers. He didn’t walk a batter, struck out one and, like Cortes, put little stock in the result and more in building endurance.

“I gave up a couple of hard contacts,” Cortes said, “but other than that, I was happy to be healthy.”

He’ll be happier in about a month.

“We just turned 35 weeks [pregnant] yesterday. We’re getting there,” Cortes said. “I think at 36, I have to be on high alert. Whenever that comes, obviously, I’m going to go and attend the birth of my child. Then keep going on that train.”